Author's Note:

Decided to change the rating to T as I've decided I will not be writing lemons. Might change it back later if violent scenes become a bit much. Intimate scenes will simply begin and fade to black so to speak.

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22nd of August, 1994

He didn't have long to prepare for the night. The clock ticked at a terrible pace before lunch was called and had slipped away from the school, taking the bus from Mizobe back to Sotoba. There wasn't enough time to organise with Natsuno's family to get him moved to the clinic. They no doubt thought that he was suffering from a cold, likely wouldn't even call a doctor if his friend was to be believed. He could bring him back to his place if he could spring him loose of his parents but then the shiki would know for certain his involvement and that would put his own family in danger. One thing was for sure though.

Natsuno wasn't safe at home.

There was the possibility that Tohru was over reacting, that Natsuno really was suffering from sickness and if that was the case? So be it, he'll accept being labelled deranged for this loop, but he would not stand by and let the demons take his friend again. Hell, if he could save him he might have some help with the epidemic, Natsuno was the first to figure this out last time. He could do it again.

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He arrived in Sotoba just past high noon when he immediately beelined to the Yuuki residence.

Walking across the packed dirt front yard his eyes raked over the home for any sign of life. The house was one of the largest in the street, taking on the appearance of two doubled storied houses, connected by a single corridor with a door which acted as the entrance. The place most likely was two separate houses once upon a time before one owner or another joined them for what came across as quite an extravagant home.

Thankfully, the noise of hammering and sawing could be heard from must have been Mr Yuuki's workshop echoed its way out of the right side of the house. No one who had been injected with shiki venom would continue work as normal, so at least he knew one person in the household was healthy as he rapped his knuckles on the door.

Muffled shuffling slowly padded to the door before revealing a fatigued Azusa Koide, panting with dark rings under her eyes which started blankly through him. Two bug bites showed prominently below the cuff of her white shirt by her elbow which told him everything he had to know.

Goddamn it, it is them… I can't slip her away as well…

"Good Afternoon, Miss Koide, is Natsuno okay?" He asked brightly, trying to act normally as possible.

"He is fine" She droned listlessly, her eyes drifting through his chest lazily.

"Oh, that's good. Then, you wouldn't mind if I brought him today's lesson material?" He asked innocently cocking his head to the side. "I thought I'd help bring him up to speed since he didn't come to school today."

"Yeah, sure…" She sighed quietly before turning and shuffling away towards her bedroom, away from the banging and crashing in the workshop. He stepped through the threshold and closed the door behind him. Removing his shoes, he gingerly made his way to Natsuno's bedroom, passing to the left side of the house away from the workshop and past walls lined with family photos and Koide's art pieces. He had to admit, she was pretty good. There was a beautiful oil painting of a bitch black night with a single ray of light spilling out of a light tower being bombarded by violent waves, he could relate.

"Hey, Natsuno" He greeted quietly as he stepped in the room to see his friend laid out in his bed dozing, bringing back terrible memories. Tears dripping on his friends face which smiled up at him with so much understanding as h leaned in to take the last of his lifeblood away.

"H-hey, Tohru." He replied quietly, sweat beading on his brow. He looked drowsy, but not as bad as his mother had seemed. It looked like he had gone through one less feeding than her judging by his colour.

"Hey man, you look rough. Didn't sleep very well?" The blonde asked, trying to find his friends constraints compelled by his attacker.

"Y-yeah, had a nightmare last night. Dad took one look at me at told me to stay home this morning." He said with little energy.

"Is that right? What did you dream of?"

"I can't really remember that well, I think there was a little girl. There could have been two of them, maybe."

Sunako. The blonde's eyes narrowed in anger.

"Do you remember what the girl looked like, have you met her before?" He asked, leaning in with intense interest.

"I don't know." He replied, frustration furrowing his brow. Almost like he wanted to speak. "I remember one wore a hat, and the other was wearing some kind of yukata."

Not Sunako, Shizuka Matsuo…

Shizuka was one of the more eccentric demons that permeated the country town. She had been young when she turned, only six. That showed clearly, with her constant tantrums but also in her fear. She was extremely easy to scare, a fact that Tohru would abuse with much enthusiasm. She had overseen teaching Tohru everything he needed to know about being a shiki and how to hunt. In doing so, she had given him every tool he needed to remove her from the equation. She had once scolded him for not compelling Natsuno not to tell people about him.

Looks like she didn't make the same mistake, although she didn't specify her clothes. Natsuno, you clever bastard.

Looking his friend dead in the eye, Tohru leaned in and grabbed Natsuno by the shoulders. "I know what you are trying to tell me." He tried to convey his meaning with his eyes. "I won't let her get you, Natsuno. I swear."

His friend stared back with wide eyes, filled with fear. He hadn't given him this look last time, although he must have felt terrified. He looked absolutely horrified as his lips worked up and down, desperately trying to say something. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"It's okay, buddy. I won't let her hurt you, I will protect you." Lifting his makeshift crucifix from his head, he slipped it around Natsuno's neck, making sure to hide it under his shirt where his father wouldn't see it. "Take this, it should buy you some time when she comes again."

"Tohru, what are you talking about?" his friend questioned lazily, seeming for all the world to be confused except for his wild, pleading eyes.

"You will be okay, Natsuno." The older boy insisted as he got to his feet and headed toward the door. "I'll be nearby, don't worry."

The door clicked shut behind him as he pretended not to hear the choke sob from within.

I promise…

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Shizuka would not come alone, whoever is hunting Koide will also be there. The little ventriloquist wouldn't be a problem by herself, but if he were to forget about her whilst he dealt with the other, undoubtedly adult opponent, she could get the jump on him. It only took one bite to take the fight out of him and it would be over for Koide, Natsuno and himself. The fact that he had to do it all quietly at the same time didn't help matters at all. He doubted he would get away with it if someone witnessed him punting a little girl in the jaw with his foot. The only bright side to the fight is that the shiki will want to do this quietly as well. Another bright side is that it couldn't be Tatsumi hunting him down through Natsuno since Koide had been bitten first. He had no idea why she had been fed on this early but clearly Chizuru's absence had changed something, no matter how minor.

Didn't they call that the butterfly effect in those time travel comics? If you changed something small in the past, the ripple effect of that one change could cause drastic changes in the future? There was no point in wasting time with philosophy, what will be will be, as his mother used to say growing up.

The point was, he would be fighting two mediocre opponents tonight and not an impossible one. He could win this if he ambushed the larger one when they split up to feed from their separate victims. He could fell the older demon quietly and hunt down Shizuka afterwards. Although, he still hadn't successfully won a stand up with an okiagari yet. Chizuru got away when he won their fight and she ambushed him later, he only took her out when he ambushed her.

Maybe an axe wasn't the best idea for this fight.

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Day turned to night once more and Tohru found himself crouched beside the tree outside Natsuno's window, carefully hidden by the shrubbery surrounding the house. The weapon clasped in two hands helped him control his fear, the thick coat he wore protected from the cool wind rushing through the leaves all around him. A long shaft of sanded wood ended in a sharp point on one end that he had spent hours witling on, the other end sported the heavy spoon of a shovel. His spear would give him the edge in the coming fight he thought happily.

The night had been quiet so far although the sun hadn't gone down that long ago. The blonde has taken up his post in the trees some time ago, his legs had started to go numb. Just as he was about to stretch his legs he heard something.

The birds slept silently in their nests.

Maybe it was his imagination?

Moonlight reflected softly off the tiled roof of the Yuuki household.

There it was again! The quiet snap of footsteps softly tiptoed closer and closer not to far behind him. Palms sweaty with nervous anticipation tightened around the haft of his shovel spear as the foot falls stopped as clothes rustled just beside him, on the other side of the tree that hid him from the demon.

With one careful swing he could remove one of the intruders in an instant. Slowly, at an agonisingly slow pace he stood up. Careful to make absolutely no noise, he couldn't afford to mess this up.

With a mute roar, his teeth clenched so hard they could crack he whipped around the tree, shovel swinging he jarred his arms, slamming the head of the weapon into the dirt before leaping onto the crouched figure. A silent, muffled scream spread warmth across his palm as he pressed it against Megumi's mouth and pinned her to the ground behind the bushes, out of sight of the house.

"What are you doing here!" He hissed quietly into her ear. "You know what, that doesn't matter." He dismissed. "Get out of here, now! You are in danger."

Wide, fearful eyes narrowed on him as she tried to shove him off her before raising a kitchen knife to his face. She didn't hold it threateningly, more like she was waving a good report card in front of a dumb kid at school. She slowly raised her free hand to the hand muffling her and removed it. "No way in hell, Freak." She whispered. "You didn't think I'd forget what happened last week did you?"

Oh shit, I forgot about you…

"I remember that beautiful woman coming into my room that night, I remember as she laughed at my terror. I remember the pain as she sunk herself into me, how she stole from me." She silently ranted, hand stabbing at her own chest. "That happened to me, not to you!" Her eyes softened slightly as she looked at him. "But, you saved me." She continued. "I saw something hit her in the head and then you were there for half a second and I saw a hammer rise and fall."

The three clunks still echoed in his own memory.

Clunk

Clunk

Clunk

"When you got up with her body, you were covered in so much blood." She shivered. "But you had this look in your eye, like a kid when they get told they did a good job." Focusing on him again, she said, "You looked proud of yourself."

"Megumi, I can explain-"

"I'm not finished." She cut in. "I felt better after a couple of days, but the look of you that night… It had to be a nightmare." She tried to convince herself. "That woman, the biting, you, all of it! It couldn't have been real." She insisted. "Then I saw you at school and I was almost convinced it was true. I saw you smiling, talking with that creep and joking with Yuuki. I was almost convinced this was all some nightmare, but then you asked about the boarding school." She pointed at him. "You protected me from that woman, and you tried to get me out of town. Isn't that right?" She asked, the question burning in her eyes.

He couldn't do anything but nod dumbly. He honestly though she would forget all about her encounter, he tried his best to stay out of her sight.

"And now, others like her are trying to kill Yuuki?" She asked despite his presence telling her everything she needed to know.

Again, he only nodded with determination in his eyes.

"T-then, I want to help." Her voice shivered and cracked but he could see the determination in her eyes. She would kill for Natsuno, he knew. He knew that personally very well. He could still feel the sickening feeling she had described as she entered him, had violated him. But now, she was willing to kill to protect Natsuno. Her love was both her greatest strength and her greatest flaw. She was selfish, there was no doubt about it but he wasn't above using her to keep everyone safe. For Natsuno, he would even work with this murderous pixie.

"Fine but keep quiet and do exactly as I say." He waited for her to nod before continuing, "You can take care of the girl, should look any older than a six-year-old." As her eyes widened in fear and disgust, he cut in again. "That thing will look like a child, and in some way, she is." He conceded, remembering his own struggles with the shiki diet. "But get one thing straight, she has drunk from Natsuno. Now that she has, she will not stop. She won't until he is dead, and then he will get up and kill more people." He lied slightly, Natsuno would never take a human life and he would work with them to destroy the enemy. But he would hate himself, he would not survive much longer than the last shiki.

"Okay, I can do it." She steeled herself as she took a double handed grip on her knife. "Where will you be, though?"

"I'll be taking care of the okiagari that is hunting his mum." Running a hand through his hair he continued, "Remember, they aren't human. If you stab her in the back, it will hurt but it won't stop her. You have to knock her out or be very confident you can destroy her heart with one stab." He doubted she could do that, so he handed her his hammer and stake. "Here, just hit her over the head with the hammer. When I'm done I'll come over and take care of the rest."

With all said and done he stalked around the house to where Yuuki and Koide slept and took his post in the shrubbery, crouching down and beginning his vigil anew.

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Another hour passed before he spotted a shadow skulk out of the tree line towards the paper window that separated Koide and her death. With three long strides and a bated breath, Takatoshi barely had time to turn around before the shovel collided with his face blade first, sinking through his nose and halfway through his head before coming to a stop. When his body fell, lodged spoon snapped from the haft under his weight leaving Tohru with only his spear. Putting his weight into the thrust, the spear tip penetrated through ribs, pushed aside the blood suckers sternum with a loud crack and pulverised the muscle that kept the abomination alive.

One down…

Running in a half crouch, Tohru made his back around the house as fast as quietly possible without being able to see Shizuka nor Megumi. Slipping back into the tree line he made his way back to his previous hiding spot by Megumi's tree where he found a hideous sight.

Shizuka's face was frozen in a rictus of horror. One eye wide in horror, the other side of her head an unidentifiable bloody mess, the little girl's body had been fallen upon with brutality. Half her head had been smashed beyond redemption and the centre of her chest had been hacked to pieces, the kitchen knife still standing in air. Megumi had done as he said, he'd destroyed the heart and almost every other organ in her panic. Tohru had been no stranger to violence but this went beyond anything he had seen during the end. This was the result of blind panic and instinctual violence.

Walking unsteadily to Natsuno's open window with shaking legs, he let out a relieved breath when he saw Natsuno sleeping peacefully, unknowing of the bloody soaked girl silently sobbing hugging her legs at the foot of his bed. Her hair was dishevelled from her fight, one of her tails undone letting the hair loose to fall to the floor. Her once yellow dress was now dark with blood down the front from where a deep bite marked her collar and her eyes were wide open despite the rivers of tears flowing from them as she stared at the window. Upon seeing Tohru, she finally let herself close her eyes and tightened her body into a ball.

He could understand, it was hard to take a life. It was worse for her he could see, despite her age, Shizuka did appear to just be a kindergartener. That couldn't have been easy. "Come on, Megumi." He whispered as he climbed in through the window and closed it behind him, making sure to lock it.

The girl didn't move.

"Hey, I know it's hard, but you have to move now. Our job isn't done." He consoled quickly but firmly. "We can cry in the morning but right now, there is work to be done."

With a deep breath, the girl's inner fire seemed to roar to life as she lifted her head with a vicious scowl. It was clear it was for him, it was for the creatures that had harmed her and now her Yuuki as she saw it. He knew she was unhinged, he just had to harness it and direct it for the greater good. "Okay, I-I'm ready."

"Atta girl, come on. We need to lock all the entrances quietly, I know the way."

After they had locked all the doors and windows to the house, they made their way outside to the bodies.

"They'll have our scents for sure now, Megumi." He said as he pulled the corpses together. "They'll be on us tomorrow night unless we can get help."

"How do you know all of this, Tohru?" She asked as she pulled the dress off Shizuka's doll and covered the girl's body with it.

"It's a long story." He grunted as he lifted Takatoshi's body over his shoulders. "Come on, we'll need these bodies in the morning."

Megumi carefully bundled the small body into her arms with tears in her eyes before following Tohru, "Where are we going?"

The body felt heavy across his shoulders, the man easily outweighed himself. His cold blood ran down Tohru's back, sticking his clothes to him.

"We are going to the Ozaki clinic."

Author's Notes:

How did you like this chapter?

We are starting to see Tohru get decent at vampire slaying, although he has a far way to go before he is Vanhelsing.

I had planned to have Tohru die at the end of this chapter, but there wasn't a way I could see Takatoshi and Shizuka beating the combined Tohru/Megumi TagTeam without compulsion. Originally, my plan was for a compelled Megumi to stab him but then I remembered that Chizuru had already bitten her so her system was effectively vaccinated against other shikis' venom. Shizuka would be used to winning encounters with a single bite, so when her victim lashed out in panic, she would have been caught off guard hence her unfortunate end right here.

What do you think, was I off the mark?

Do you feel that Megumi would work with Tohru to save Natsuno? I don't think it is out of character to do everything in her power to protect her obsession. We have seen her kill for him before, just not in a positive light.